Sequoia unveils $950 million in new early-stage funds as it strives to be “as good as our next investment.”

Despite growing chatter about an AI bubble, Sequoia Capital insists its investment approach is not influenced by market madness.

“Markets go up and down, but our strategy remains consistent,” said Bogomil Balkansky, partner in Sequoia’s early-stage investment team. “We are always looking for different founders with ideas to build businesses across generations.”

To demonstrate this consistency, Sequoia announced two new funds on Monday Almost match The volumes were launched about three years ago: a $750 million early-stage fund targeting Series A startups and a $200 million seed fund.

This money was provided after a turbulent period for the legendary company. In 2021, Sequoia overhauled its structure to Evergreen Master Fund Backed by strategy-specific “sub-funds,” primarily to enable the company to hold its shares in portfolio companies long after the IPO. The company took a major financial hit in late 2022, Loss of more than $200 million When her investment in cryptocurrency exchange FTX exploded, it followed in 2023 Separation Its two divisions include India and China.

The storied company, which backed Airbnb, Google, Nvidia, and Stripe in their infancy, is putting the latest challenges behind it and returning to its core goal: investing in promising early-stage founders.

Balkanski reinforced this mission by saying: “Our ambition has always been and continues to be to identify these founders as soon as possible; to roll up our sleeves and be a very active participant in the journey of building their company.”

With AI startup valuations soaring, Sequoia wants to use the new money to invest in promising founders at the beginning of their startup building journey. This strategy allows the company to secure a low price while maintaining a significant ownership stake.

This early-stage focus is even more important for the company now. With valuations rising at an unprecedented pace, getting in early is key to getting a lower price and securing a big stake.

This approach is paying off: Sequoia Seeds and Series A investments in pride, Harvey, n8n, Sierraand My time It has been appreciated many times over amid the AI ​​boom.

Even with its famous Series A history, Balkansky explained that Sequoia aims to defend its legacy by investing even early: “We have an amazing track record and tradition of partnering with very early-stage companies, which today would be classified as pre-seed companies.”

He highlighted the company’s early conviction: Sequoia recently wrote its first security test scan Expo,AI Reliability Engineer passingAnd an alternative to DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Reflection – All companies that have since raised significant capital are at much higher valuations. Among the ways the company has helped behind the scenes, it says it has recruited a former Databricks CRO to Xbow’s board, connected Traversal with more than 30 potential customers, and arranged a meeting between Reflection AI and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, which led directly to 500 million dollars Investment from the chip maker.

Even with these recent successes, Sequoia is relentlessly focused on maintaining its five-decade legacy as Silicon Valley’s largest investor. To ensure this mindset continues, the company’s newly renovated office features a wall where each investor has handwritten this reminder: “We are only as good as our next investment.”